SOUTH COAST

We arrived at 12.00 only 10 mins late.  Amazingly everything is organised these days, no hassle by drivers or anything.  Weather was cloudy and steamy but nice and warm.  Our driver was waiting, he was not hugely talkative but pleasant. We drove 113km which took 4 hours on the way passing a prime ministerial campaign procession with lots of military, police and paraphanelia.  On arriving in Hikkaduwa it took as a while to find Ritas but it was shut for winter as were many places.  We are staying at Moon Beam hotel $25 per night (after bargaining from $45). 

Great room on seafront, unfortunately 10 mins out of town on arrival it started to rain, then pour.  It has not rained much at all so far so we are just unlucky.  We found a great restaurant for dinner No 1 Roti Bar.  4.50 for a curry and naan – great food and friendly people. 

Still raining, the Tsunami has taken a lot of the beach, it is now a narrower strip and slowly eroding into the buildings. 

Sri Lankan omelette for breakfast – fantastic.

Into Galle and a hot and steamy walk around the fort and old buildings, late lunch (tomato, onion, garlic salad) Yummy. 

Love the novel clothes dryer

Back on beach in Hikkaduwa, much sunnier now and great watching the crashing waves.

A drive along the coast to Matara, the stilt fisherman are amazing to watch and the coast line is stunning. 

We had a traditional lunch at a roadside stall – brilliant food and only a couple of dollars, could also have easily fed 4.  From here it was a 4 hour dive up into the hills on a very windy road to Deniyaya.  Drivers here are mad, the all drive very fast and overtake on blind bends and even when 2 buses coming straight at you. A 2 hour walk in Sinharaja rainforest was great, our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and fantastic at spotting the smallest things.  Beautiful place, snakes, lizards, monkeys. 

The only bummer was that when I looked at my photos afterwards I discovered that I had changed the settings for a bird on the way in and everything was so underexposed and almost black because I forgot to change it back.  Am I ever going to get better at this?

The accommodation is an old colonial building and the rooms are huge. 

Views over the countryside are just breathtaking. 

The meal for $3.50 would have fed at least 10……  Lots of unusual birds and a cute squirrels.

Our driver decided to go the long was round (Exceptionally long way round in fact) to Negombo and what should have been a four hour drive was 9 hours.  Travelling here is exhausting, so much scary driving and traffic.  We passed a Buddhist parade which was very colourful and a protest against low wages. 

Always something going on.

Hanging around Negombo, beach here is really dirty and the whole place is comparatively expensive and more surprisingly very mediocre food compared with everywhere else so far – too modified for westerners I think.  We found a fantastic room in an old building – again huge rooms and bathrooms.  We have a balcony on the seafront – all for $22 per night. 

In front of where we are they are drying all sorts of fish, watching them work, it is long backbreaking labour, laying them all out, then moving them and on and on. 

They do not speak English so we could not find out what kind of fish.  They vary from very small to enormous.

The locals love to sit and play cards – All day sometimes